Real or Not Real?

I think I figured the reason why I find it so hard to write a review for a contemporary novel.

Contemps happen in real life. Even if I wanted to (and believe me, I’ve tried) question reality, I just can’t. I mean, wake up, people. Reality is reality. We’re just blessed to have books with us to get away with what’s real even just for a while.

You have an exam tomorrow. You get fat for eating pizza. You don’t have the money to buy everything you want. That’s reality. That’s what contemps are.

The opposite of what’s real is what’s not, and that’s why I can go talking about what’s not real for hours. Yes, we don’t actually want all of them to be real. I mean, who wants a dystopian world to be real? (Hunger Games, anyone?)

BUT what we love (or I love, if you don’t share the same belief) about the worlds that only exist in books are the characters. We identify with them, we can relate. And there are times when we try to picture ourselves as the characters that we love.

I use the power of fiction to cope with reality. Because as a friend have put it, stories make sense, life does not.